Instincts
by Ms.MusicLover
Summary: Instincts. They are what guide any being to survive, to live. Animals have instincts; so do humans. Jake, however, was currently feeling more animal than human. (Cover picture by sujk08323 from deviantART).


Disclaimer: I do not own American Dragon: Jake Long. (I wish I did, though.)

Warnings: Violence; blood.

-Hey guys, this is just a random thought that popped into my head. Please enjoy! :)

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Instincts. They are what guide any being to survive, to live.

Animals have the most basic instincts. The instinct to eat when hungry (or hunt if the animal was a predator), drink when thirsty, and sleep when tired. Fear, anger, and the response to danger were just some other examples of responses to instincts. Fear was the reaction to anything that might put said creature in danger. Anger was what one creature might feel in a response to fear or threat of any kind. The response to danger was easy to name—the fight-or-flight response; the instinct to either stay and fight whatever was challenging the creature or flee to live another day.

While animals have the most basic instincts, humans had the same instincts as animals. Humans were just so much more complicated. Happiness, elation, exuberance, anger, rage, hate, loathing, fear, paranoia, suspicion, mistrust, worry, irritation, sorrow, sadness, mourning, distress, anxiety—all emotions that humans had and could express that animals did not. These were too complex. There were too many.

Dragons were animalistic creatures. They had basic instincts that told them what they had to do to survive. However, while dragons were animal in nature, they had human-level intelligence. They also had the ability to express the complex myriad of emotions, thoughts, and feelings that humans could.

While dragons acted human most of the time, they did revert back to their basic instincts sometimes. Whether it was in their actual dragon form or their human form, it did happen.

And right now, Jake was feeling more dragon than human, more animal than human.

It was supposed to be a nice relaxing afternoon for the Long family. A few weeks ago, Jake had been flying around when he had spotted a beach. It looked like no one had ever set foot on it. There were no houses around, which meant that this could not be someone's privately owned beach. So Jake had told his family about the abandoned beach spot and they decided to have a beach day that Saturday.

When Saturday came, Susan, Jonathan, Jake, Haley, and even Lao Shi went to spend the whole day at the beach. It was late in the morning, about eleven o' clock. They decided that they would stay well until at least four or five in the afternoon. Everyone was having a good time. Susan and Jonathan were relaxing under the large umbrella; Lao Shi was calmly sitting in the shade, watching over his two grandchildren; and Jake and Haley were actually getting along and were play fighting with each other in dragon form. The beach was plenty secluded that the two kids would not have to worry about having a stray human wander onto the beach and suddenly find two magical dragons roughhousing each other.

Jake was feeling very happy at the moment. He had not been able to just relax and have fun in his dragon form in a long time. He was always fighting and/or on patrol, always working. Now, he was having fun with his sister while at the same time teaching her how to fight. Also at the same time, he knew that both Haley and he were indulging themselves in the simple instinct of any dragon—play fighting.

They snapped at each other's wings and tumbled over one another, laughing and growling happily the whole time. They swiped at each other with their claws (careful not to use enough force to hurt the other) and hit each other with their tails, trying to knock the other one over to win. It was a lazy fight, but it was fun nonetheless.

All was going well, until they heard an unfamiliar voice speak up.

"Well, well, well. Lookie what we got here, boys."

Everybody's heads snapped in the direction of the voice. On top of high dune of sand and craggy rock, were three dragons. The two in the back were both a dull yellow color with a brown underbelly. They both were the same height, stature, and size—twins, most likely. The one in the front was quite apparently the boss. This guy was taller and larger than the twins. He was a deep maroon-brown with a bright gray under belly. The ridge of scales along the center of his back was also a bright gray. He stood arrogantly with a cocky look on his face.

Jonathan and Susan sat up in surprise, while Lao Shi stood up at attention, already on alert. Jake and Haley stopped their play fight immediately and were on guard; they already felt like this gut was a threat.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Jonathan asked.

The leader shifted his posture lazily and spoke an arrogant smirk on his face. "Me? Well I'm Luca and these two lookalikes behind me are Marco and Mitch. And what we want is for you guys to scram. You're on our turf, losers."

Jake already wanted to punch this guy in the face.

Something in the back of his mind shifted and Jake felt a change go over him slightly. With a deep growl reverberating through his words, Jake said, "What makes this your turf, chump? We were here first."

"I claim whatever I think I deserve," Luca pointed to himself. "This beach here is pretty sweet and I think me an' my boys deserve this spot. You silly little _humans_ and _play fighting_ dragons don't deserve this." He said the words humans and play fighting like he was disgusted by them.

Just like that, the air became tense and a change could definitely be felt in all the dragons.

The thing in Jake's mind shifted again and he could hear it whispering to him. _This territory is yours. How dare he challenge your authority here! You must dominate…show them this is your land yours!_

The challenge of territory.

The challenge of authority.

The threat to his family.

Accept challenge. Dominate challenger. Protect family. Send challenger fleeing.

The fight-or-flight response was the only thing that was guiding his brain. His dragon instincts took over his thought processes and screamed at him to fight. And fight, he would.

Jake's hackles raised and he bared his teeth. "This is my territory. Unless you want to fight over it, leave." Next to him, Jake could here Haley growling at the three, making it quite clear that she was willing to fight them if need be.

An animalistic gleam came over Luca's eyes as he wickedly smiled, showing all of his sharp teeth. "Let's fight then, punk." Luca turned to the twins. "Marco, Mitch, stay behind. This is my fight." Marco and Mitch both nodded and stayed put as Luca jumped down from the dune. Jake pushed Haley toward the rest of his family with his tail. "Haley, go." Of course Haley vehemently protested. "Jake, I want to fight, too!" Jake turned to his little sister and looker her in the eye. "Just go look over mom and dad, okay?" He could clearly see the instincts driving her to fight in her eyes and he was quite sure that she could also see the same instincts in his eyes as well. A look of understanding came across her face as she silently nodded and went back to her family. She knew that 'just go look over mom and dad' expressed a lot of things—protect the family, this fight was his, and he needed to fight this intruder to their territory.

Jake and Luca circled each other, sizing the other up. Muscles were bunched up, ready to lunge forward at a moment's notice. Finally after moments of tense anticipation, Luca sprang forward with a loud roar. Jake expertly sidestepped and whipped his tail at the other's face trying to disorient him. This did not work as Luca was able to dodge Jake's tail and shoot out a clawed hand that managed to clip Jake on the wing. Although it had only clipped him, it drew a fair amount of blood. Jake winced but did not stop in his attack.

Luca's smile was feral. One could easily see the pleasure in his eyes at his enemy's blood being spilled. "Looks like I drew first blood, loser. Let's see how this plays out." And with that, Luca lunged forward again, eager for more blood.

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A little ways away from the two fighting dragons, Jonathan and Susan looked at them in worry, confusion, and panic. Why were they fighting like this? It made no sense. They turned to Lao Shi who had shifted into his own dragon form when the other dragons had appeared. "What's going on Lao Shi? Why's Jake fighting like that?" Jonathan asked worriedly. He had seen Jake fight before, but this was...different. He could feel it.

"As you both know, dragons are magical creatures. While they are magical creatures, they are also, as crude as this will sound, animals —animals with human intelligence. From time to time we happen to revert back to our instincts as dragons, therefore acting more dragon-like than human, more animal like." Lao Shi said. "Right now, Jake is feeling the instinct to protect his territory and fight off the intruder that challenged him said territory. That territory is the beach and that challenger is Luca. He is also feeling the instinct to protect his family. That is part of the reason that both Haley and I have stayed behind with you two. We, too, feel out instincts telling us what to do."

Susan looked very surprised. In all her life she thought that dragons were just humans with the ability to shape shift into a dragon form and use that form's powers. Never did she think that they felt differently than normal humans did. She looked down at Haley. She could visibly see that Haley was restraining herself from going in there to beat up Luca. Her teeth were bared in a snarl and soft, but irritated and angry, growls escaped her lips. Her wings were twitching in irritation and she was clicking her claws together as she curled and uncurled her fingers. Her whole body was tense and wound up, like she would snap at anybody who would touch her. She was very fidgety.

She looked over to her father and saw that he was in a similar state to Haley; however, he seemed more in control than she was. He stood rigidly and his eyes were flicking to Luca, Marco, and Mitch. His arms were crossed and he was tapping his claws in irritation on his arms. While his body was still, his tail was shifting back and forth in an uneasy manner, sweeping the sand, probably unconsciously.

She also noticed that when they were talking, Jake and Lao Shi used more basic terms to describe the situation. For example, the words "beach", "turf", and "this spot"; when describing the beach they were on, these words were reduced to simple "territory". It was a very primal description.

Susan turned back to Jonathan and she could tell that he saw the exact same things she did. Jonathan spoke again. "So there's nothing we can do?"

Lao Shi shook his head. "Even if there was something you could do, Jake would not allow it. Not only is this a fight for territory and family, this is a fight of pride. The young dragon's pride is also being fought for."

The four could only stand and watch Jake's fight.

* * *

Blood had been drawn from both sides, marring the white sand. Luca and Jake were both breathing hard, but neither one was willing to show any signs of weakness toward the other.

It had only been five minutes since the fight had started and it was quite apparent who the winner would be. Apparently, Luca had quite underestimated Jake when challenging him. Not only was Jake the American Dragon, he also was trained by his grandfather in the ways of martial arts. Luca on the other hand fought like a street brawler—his form was sloppy and he had no skill whatsoever at making his moves flow together.

Jake had a gash on the left side of his forehead, making blood flow freely into his eye. His right wing had been clawed and also had blood flowing from it. He had large bite marks under his chin, signs that he had been able to dodge the bites that were aimed for his jugular. They were bleeding, however, but they were not gushing blood as the bites were intended to do. His body also had very shallow cuts and painful bruises on it as well. Jake growled deep in his throat, very annoyed at the fact that this _weakling _dared to harm him, to intrude on _his_ territory, threaten _his family_!

Jake sucked in a large breath of air, expanding his chest and letting the hot fire well inside of him, and breathed out a powerful blast of fire. Being as tired as he was, Luca was losing focus in the fight; consequently, he was taken by surprise by the blast of fire and painfully knocked off his feet with a choked yell. Jake was quick to glide over the white sand and toward the fallen Luca. He shot out his hand and wrapped it around Luca's neck, slamming Luca's whole frame into the sand. Luca gave a loud groan of pain.

Jake lowered his head closer to Luca and snarled, "You fool. I am the American Dragon (At this point, Luca's eyes widened in realization at who Jake was). I will always be your better, and you will do well to remember that." Although Jake was talking specifically to Luca, somehow through his instinct driven mind he knew that everyone else on the beach would be hearing this as well. "You dare challenge me? You _dare _to _threaten my family_?" Jake forcibly pressed Luca farther into the sand, being very clear to make his point. Luca let out a very pained whimper. He turned his head to the side and bared his neck as best he could (it was hard to with Jake squeezing it like that)—a clear sign of submission.

"I'm sorry, okay? I won't ever come back here again, I promise!" Luca was hysterically shouting out promises to Jake. He quite obviously wanted to get away from Jake, wanted to save his own life. "Neither will my boys either. We'll make sure you never see our faces again. Just let me go!"

_Kill him! Kill him now! This being is your lesser, your underling. You are superior. Show that to him! This little scuffle will show nothing. He might say he will leave you alone, but you could never be sure of that. Killing him will solve your problem permanently, and then you will never have to worry about seeing his face __**ever**__ again. __**Kill him now!**_

Jake shook his head rapidly back and forth, trying to clear his head. The part of his mind that let him keep his humanity-his sanity-knew that this was just his instincts talking, the primal part of his conscious. The basic, primal behaviors were guiding his body through this and clouding his mind. After a few deep breaths, Jake was able to push down enough of his primal thoughts and impulses that he was able to think slightly clear again.

It took a lot of his strength to not kill Luca right then and there. He gave one last warning as he growled out, "You better make sure I don't see your little gang again." With that, he shoved himself off of Luca and strode away toward his family. Behind him, he could here Luca scrambling to get up, and could hear Marco and Mitch flying to him, yelling to him and asking if he was okay.

With the battle over, all the adrenaline that was coursing through his body left, leaving his body exhausted. The primal urges, the instincts, which had been guiding his mind faded away, leaving his mind worn out and thought processes lethargic. His legs shook and gave out underneath him, unable to support him and sending his damaged body on a one-way trip to the ground. Before he hit the ground, however, he felt someone catch him. Opening his tired eyes, he saw his grandfather still in dragon form looking down at him softly. He saw understanding in those old eyes, understanding at what had just transpired and exactly what it felt like to be in that position. He did not criticize Jake. For that, Jake was immensely glad. "You did just fine. Everyone is safe now; everything is okay. You are okay. You are safe now, young dragon."

At hearing those reassuring words, Jake allowed himself to shift out of his dragon form and into his human one. He no longer had to be on guard; he could relax. With his human side being less resilient than his dragon half, his wounds were a little more serious and definitely more painful when he was in human form. The gash that was on the left side of his forehead opened up, once again sending blood flowing into his eye, making him hiss inaudibly. He could feel the bites on his neck bleed more quickly than they had before. The deep claw marks that he had injured his right wing now ripped open more deeply on his right shoulder blade on his back. He managed to swallow a painful gasp that would have otherwise escaped his lips. The shallow cuts and painful bruises that he had also received made themselves known on Jake's body. The pain that radiated from them, combined with all of his other injuries, made him moan painfully.

"Jake!"

"Jake, are you okay?"

"_So they finally came, huh?"_ Jake surprised himself with his own bitter thoughts. As his mom, dad, and sister came, he could see the worry in their eyes. However, all of them were worried; Jake could clearly see that his mom and dad were very confused, shocked, and actually a bit disturbed by his behavior. Behind all of those emotions, he could also see and glint of fear of him in their eyes. Again, the bitter thoughts continued and he scoffed mentally. _"Humans…fearing what they don't understand." _Jake felt bad about thinking bad about his parents like that but his primal half, the half that was more in tune with nature and other creatures than with humans, knew that that was absolutely true.

And…his human half knew it, too.

As his parents kneeled closer to him, he felt his grandfather hold on to him a bit more tightly. It did not hurt him, though. He felt more than saw Haley curl her small body closer to his side—around his upper torso, shoulders, and head—emitting small growls of comfort and, unconsciously, warning. She was comforting Jake and warning her parents to stay away, even though she did not know that she was actually doing so against her parents. Jake could easily understand what was going through their minds; it was the basic instinct that was ingrained in every dragon, so ingrained that it made these two dragons go against their human family: _protect thy fellow dragon_. Haley and Grandpa probably did not even consciously know that they were doing it.

Through half-lidded eyes, he saw his parents lean back slightly. They were clearly surprised and confused at how Lao-Shi and Haley were acting. They did not understand that dragons protect their dragon brethren at the unconscious level. They did not understand the primal instructions written into the dragon's heads.

They did not understand.

They could not understand.

While dragons had human-level intelligence, dragons mostly thought for their other dragons. Humans, on the other hand, thought mostly for themselves—almost _all_ of the time, they thought for themselves. That selfishness that all humans displayed made them incapable of understanding the mentality and actions of dragons. This also made humans fear what they do not understand. Fear always led to hatred and hatred led to violence. That violence was always the destroying of what the humans did not understand. That is why magical creatures had to hide from the humans. They had to his for their own survival.

Hearing Haley's comforting growls Jake automatically responded by rubbing his head weakly against her body and crooning softly to let her know that he was okay. Being dragons, the temperature of the body was higher than that of a regular human. With Haley against his side and Grandpa holding him gently, they made him feel warm, allowing him to relax even more. It was ironic that he felt safer with his sister and grandfather than he did with his own parents.

He let out a sigh of content. The warmth from the two dragons around his body eased his mind and started to lull him to sleep. Feeling safe and secure, Jake closed his eyes.

He would worry about his wounds when he woke up.

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Published: 5/13/12

A/N: Hope you all liked this one-shot! For the genre: it's kind of general but I guess there's some hurt/comfort at the end of it where Haley and Lao Shi "protect" Jake. I actually think I did pretty well with this one. I'm trying to get more descriptive with my stories, and that might be why this one-shot was created. Please review! The reviews help me find out what I can improve in my stories. They also make me happy~! :)

A/N 2: Hey, I know that you all are probably wondering "Why doesn't she update Observations While Bonding?" Well...I have the next chapter for that half-way done. I started working on it about two (or three?) weeks ago. I got the first part of it done, but then I got the flu very badly. That week and the week after (this week?) were me trying to catch up on school work and recover from the flu.


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